


Neutralize

by LunaLikewell



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 911 dispatch, Adrenaline, Canon-Typical Violence, Fight Scene, Gen, PTSD, human assailant, the giggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 08:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaLikewell/pseuds/LunaLikewell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia and Stiles learned to protect themselves in the company of werewolves. They don’t know how to handle an assailant who doesn’t come with any supernatural boosts.</p>
<p>Or the one in which someone thinks Lydia - with her expensive purse and high heels - is an easy target.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neutralize

**Author's Note:**

> Set in some nebulous future or parallel verse in which the characters have learned & used self-defense enough that it's part of their automatic response to violence.
> 
> This was originally an outtake from another story, but I totally forgot to include the reoccurring theme from that story, and it seemed to stand alone just fine.
> 
> It hasn't been beta'd because I'm impatient.

The guy doesn’t come out of nowhere. He’s following Lydia long enough for her to send an exasperated text to Stiles. The guy had been lingering outside the cafe as they were parting ways. He’s probably some besotted jerk who doesn't know how to approach her. Maybe a threat, maybe just her imagination going out of control. Exasperation feels better than fear, so she uses it.

She doesn’t bank on the guy trying to drag her into an alley, just like he doesn’t expect her to be able to fight back in heels. He probably doesn’t expect her to be able to fight at all. She’s honestly not that great. She doesn’t have much strength, doesn’t have the coordination of the werewolves she's trained with. But she _has_ trained with werewolves. She knows how to anticipate a strike, how to roll with a punch, and how to aim for where her target it going to be.

He goes for her purse first, expecting her to drop it, or just to try to hang on to it. Instead, Lydia _yanks_ it back toward herself, pulling her assailant toward her and giving her the chance to slam her knee into his guts. He’s left wheezing as Lydia goes after the taser that when flying when her bag tore. (She has got to take that purse back to the store. She paid _far_ too much to have it simply open at the seams when grabbed by an assailant.) She doesn’t get that far, because he grabs at her leg, fumbling a folding knife open while she regains her balance. He clearly doesn’t have a plan for how to use it, though, because he grabs her around the waist with one arm, and tries to clamp his knife-holding hand over her mouth.

Moments later, the knife is on the ground, as is the guy. He's cradling two broken fingers with a hand now bleeding from its encounter with Lydia’s teeth. Which, fuck, she hopes he doesn’t have any blood-borne illnesses because she’s pretty sure she hasn’t got enhanced healing.

He’s clearly already down, but she tases him just to be sure he’ll still be here when the police arrive. She texts Stiles before calling 911, though.

She’s standing in the mouth of the alley, still on the phone with the dispatcher when Stiles arrives at a run.

“My friend’s here,” she says, “do I need to stay on the line?”

The dispatcher says yes, but that, since Lydia has already provided the man’s description, they should move away from him and wait for the police. “Do not engage him if he comes to before the police arrive,” the dispatcher is saying as Stiles squeezes her free hand and tries to subtly check her for damage. “I’m okay,” Lydia mouths, as the dispatcher continues. “There’s a cruiser on its way to you right now. Have you moved away from the-”

“HEY!” Lydia turns with Stiles’s yell. The man is rushing towards them. He’s making a break for it, Lydia thinks, he can’t possibly be trying again. Except clearly Stiles sees it differently. He immediately pushes her behind him and steps into the man’s path. The guy tries to backpedal when he sees Stiles gearing up for a fight, but it’s too late, because Stiles has grabbed him and is pulling him over his hip, sending him into the brick wall. He pulls his bookbag off his shoulder and uses the momentum to slam it into the side of the man’s head. Lydia can’t help but wince at the sound.

“Oh my God,” she says, “Oh my God. Holy crap.” The adrenaline has kicked back in, and she’s shaking. Stiles is, too. It’s a moment before she realizes that she’s lowered the hand with the phone in it.

“Are you okay?” the dispatcher is saying “Miss, can you hear me?”

“Sorry,” Lydia says, “I’m sorry. He just. He ran at us and it looked like- I think he’s unconscious again.” She looks over to where Stiles is taking the unconscious man’s pulse, a horrified look on his face. “He is unconscious right? We haven’t-?”

Stiles stands back up and nods. “Yeah, yeah, he’s alive. I just- I’m not used to them staying down when-” He runs a hand through his hair.

“Are you or your friend injured?” The dispatcher just won’t shut up and Lydia just wants to sink to the ground with Stiles and- and giggle, maybe?

“We’re okay. Sti- My friend hit him with a backpack. I think he’s got dictionaries in there or something.” She can feel the giggles approaching for sure now, because it’s not a dictionary. It’s the printed copy of the Bestiary they’d brought to the cafe for some cross-referencing. “I don’t know though, the, uh, the guy might need some medical attention. I think I broke some fingers when he grabbed me, and that last blow - the backpack - I don’t think it’s actually that easy to knock someone out with one blow?”

“Okay, I’ll send medical responders, too, then. The police should be arriving any moment. Do you hear sirens yet?”

Lydia listens and, yup, definitely sirens. Stiles is now staring down the street with a look of terror. “Shit shit shit,” he’s saying, “oh shit my dad is going to kill me. Shit shit shit fuck _shit_. What if he’s really injured? I don’t know how to fight someone whose bones _stay broken_.”

Lydia can’t help it this time, and the giggle boils up and over. Stiles stares at her for a moment before a look crosses his face that tells her that he realized what exactly he just said.

When the police arrive on the scene, they find the entrance to the alley flanked by an unconscious and bloodied man, and a pair of teenagers sitting on the ground, clutching each other and wheezing with hysterical laughter. No one ever gets a straight answer about what was so absurd about the situation.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so idk if the flow of the violence is realistic enough for suspension of disbelief, but given how fight scenes go on the show, I'm sure we can pretend, right?


End file.
